Regular readers of this column will remember how, a year ago, our friends at the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church started a PR campaign in response to “misinformation in the media”.
Making this church look good was always going to be a big ask. It preaches a radical doctrine of separation from the world, under which its members are urged to hate the rest of us because of the risk of “contamination and defilement”, while extracting as much financial benefit as they can under another doctrine called “spoiling the Egyptians”.
And even though its members don’t vote, it ordered thousands of them onto the streets to “volunteer” for the Liberal Party without declaring who they were.
Well, over the summer recess, there have been a few updates to the PR push. Secret tape recordings of sermons by Bruce Hales, the church’s Grand Poobah (real titles: Man of God, Elect Vessel, Paul of our Day) show him pronouncing to his flock that “trying to maintain a reputation – it’s never appealed to me”.
“I’ve always thought trying to maintain a reputation was a bane. Basically worthless,” he said.
But that might come as a surprise to his loyal functionary, church spokesman Lloyd Grimshaw, who spent last year squiring friendly media outlets through the church’s previously top secret services and producing a series of dull podcasts professing how normal they all are. Grimshaw did not respond to a request for comment.
It also might come as a surprise to the church’s Rapid Relief Team. This is a registered charity which hands out refreshments at local disasters – and with Australia’s season of bushfires and floods, they’ve had a busy summer. A cynic might suggest RRT’s purpose is to make the church look good, to justify its charitable status and to curry favour with politicians. The church has even drawn the attention of the Australian Tax Office in recent years.
You would think it would have to work pretty hard to curry favour with Anthony Albanese, who called the church a “cult” during the federal election campaign.
Still, there was Albo pictured at the Victorian fire front in January with an RRT snack and chatting away to one of the PBCC’s local nabobs – photos the church was quick to upload onto their Facebook page.
“RRT volunteers … were greeted and cheered on by a friendly visit from the PM Anthony Albanese, showing support for our community and recovery efforts,” the caption said.
The Prime Minister’s Office would not be drawn on whether Albanese was aware of who he was pictured with, or whether he stands by his description of the church as a “cult”, as he did last year.
But a government spokesman did offer up this line: “It’s up to the Liberal Party to explain what the arrangements were and what promises were made to this group to reward their significant investment in the Liberal Party’s campaign.”
Our colleague, photographer Kate Geraghty, also saw the PR push in action on the police line surrounding a recent apparent domestic violence triple murder at Lake Cargellico in NSW.
The RRT’s local leader, Rod Martin, showed up at the police tape near where Sophie Quinn and John Harris were shot dead.
He introduced himself to the media and said his team was available if journalists wanted to do a story about the RRT relief efforts. Then he offered food to police and the media. We’re not sure exactly how that squares with the Brethren’s big boss saying: “We don’t really want to pursue favourable reporting”. Maybe that scripture had not yet had time to penetrate so far into the regions.
A church spokesman declined to comment, “other than to say – no one in our church is interested in reputation or image. What we are interested in letting people know the facts about us after years of misreporting”.
The biggest Australian Open celebrity super fan
Just who was the biggest Australian Open celebrity super fan? We kept a close eye on who attended the most games at this year’s Open – or to perhaps put it more bluntly, who has been the recipient of the most corporate hospitality invitations.
Influencer Annalise Dalins who is engaged to Collingwood football star Josh Daicos was a lead contender.
Dalins is quite the Melebrity in her own right and attended the tennis with just about every sponsor under the sun, with and without Daicos. She was a guest of Mecca, Emirates, Piper, Louis Vuitton and twice with Grey Goose.
However, the winner was swimming golden girl Ariarne Titmus, who admittedly knows quite a bit about how to take a title. Titmus told us she came to seven days of the tournament during the opening week.
“I’m coming to a lot during the fortnight,” she confided in somewhat of an understatement.
We initially thought maybe the Queen of Melbourne’s major events Bec Judd might be up there, but the WAG/influencer/entrepreneur/podcast host only made it twice during the tournament: at Piper-Heidsieck’s on-court seats and as a guest of Tennis Australia on the women’s semi-finals night.
Judd had only admiration for Titmus’ stellar attendance at the tennis following her retirement from swimming.
“I would love to be able to come that much,” Judd said. “If I didn’t have kids that would be me. Live it up, she’s lucky. Where else would you want to be?”
Defenestrated News Corp innovator cleans house
Life after News Corp can be tough. Just ask any of the former editors and executives or the many more who have turned their previous employment into a crusading identity.
Among those recently joining the club was John McGourty, who was defenestrated as part of the publisher’s most recent cull.
Of course, the cull we’re referring to occurred in 2024, when the Australian outpost of News Corp called in PwC to reorganise the business as part of a plan then aimed at saving in the order of $65 million.
The restructure hit a number of high-profile editors and executives, of which McGourty was among the most senior, as the group director of News Corp’s “editorial innovation centre”.
Now, it would seem, the McGourty household is dispensing with some of the excesses of times past and is flogging luxury household items. Up for grabs was an Hermes chess set priced to go at $3250 (since sold!), and a designer “Nerocactus” made by Gufram, for just $4500. “One of only 500 made”, read McGourty’s ad caption, on Facebook marketplace no less.
Reached by phone, McGourty was suspicious that these listings were even newsworthy, before calling the line of inquiry “weird”. All in good jest, we said. He explained the sales came as part of some good old-fashioned decluttering. “You start the new year, and you’re kind of decluttering your life, and there’s some things I want to declutter as I downsize,” he said.
The former News Corp man spent more than two decades at the Murdoch-controlled publisher, after moving over from Scotland in the late 1990s. He started his News Corp Australia career at the Daily Telegraph, where he ascended to deputy editor, before heading into corporate roles.
As things stand, we can’t decide which of these tasks is tougher: innovating at News Corp, or finding a market for his Nerocactus.
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